Money TalkTalks

I’ve recently experienced an issue with TalkTalk, which should have been relatively simple to resolve. Apparently, TalkTalkdon’t think the issue is easy to resolve and are determined to make me suffer as much as possible. It now seems that despite my cancellation being cancelled, they’ve disconnected my telephone line anyway.

On Saturday 31st January, I contacted TalkTalk yet again because I’ve received a bill for £42.00, which includes and early termination fee. I went over the same old things, again. This time I asked to make a complaint and was told I’d have to speak to a manager to do this; I could either hold (apparently the wait time would be 10 or 15 minutes) or I could request a call back. Not wanting to waste any unnecessary time on the phone to TalkTalk, I requested a call back and was promised that this would be received within 48 hours.

I wasn’t contacted on Sunday.

I wasn’t contacted on Monday.

I gave it one more day, but I wasn’t contacted today either. No missed calls, no voicemails; not a sausage.

Few things fill me with fear but picking up the phone, knowing that I need to call TalkTalk, is one of the things which make me quiver like Michael J Fox testing vibrators during an earthquake.

TalkTalk have a voice recognition system in place, so the recorded woman asks why you’re calling up. When she asked me, I replied “regarding a complaint”. Recorded woman was sorry, but she didn’t recognise my response and asked me to try again. This time, in a very slow and precise way, I said “complaint”. Recorded woman didn’t seem to recognise this, either. I was given one last chance, so this time I replied “you bastards didn’t call me back like you promised and I hope you all become struck down with pungent STDs”. I don’t think recorded woman understood me per say, but she put me through to an advisor anyway.

The gentleman whom I was speaking to managed something quite amazing; he managed to come across as helpful and incredibly patronising at the same time. I was trying to explain my frustration (very politely) and he kept talking over me. I asked to speak to a manager but was told that the lines were busy blah blah blah….

After a few choice words (owing to losing my patience by this point), I was transferred straight to a manager. I wanted to know what was happening with my complaint and why I wasn’t called back.

My complaint was ‘resolved’ on their system.

Attempts to call me back had been made on Sunday between 13:00 and 14:00. If this had been the case, my phone would have rung or I’d have an exciting missed call. The phone definitely didn’t ring and I definitely didn’t have a missed call.

My complaint had been ‘resolved’ because TalkTalk were unable to contact me.

I was keen to check which numbers TalkTalk had tried to contact me on as I’d given them my mobile number. Apparently, they tried my mobile but only after they’d tried me on my landline first.

Which they’d already disconnected.

Which formed part of my complaint.

The manager then continued to tell me that my line had been disconnected and that I’d been advised to contact a different team if I wished to prevent this from happening. From his notes, he could see that I didn’t call back.

The following conversation went quite well. The lady whom I was speaking with could see that there was a cancellation request on the account but couldn’t see a reason for it being there or that I’d requested this myself. She told me I’d need to ring a different department the next day as they were now closed, to cancel the cancellation. I explained that I wouldn’t be contacting them. She had confirmed I hadn’t put in a cancellation request so I told her I’d leave the issue with her. She assured me that she’d escalate the matter and get the cancellation cancelled.

I did try to direct the manager to my blog, but he didn’t seem keen to subscribe to it. Instead, he wanted to do things properly by going back to listen to the phone call during which I was told to leave the issue with someone. Once he’s done that, he’ll call me back in 24 to 48 hours.

You would have thought that it would be simple enough to cancel the cancellation or the early termination fee, but it seems that TalkTalk just want my money.

If TalkTalk are anything, they’re consistent. I have consistently been going around in circles since this farce began. If I hear anyone mutter anything negative about TalkTalk‘s consistency, I’ll be there to defend the telecommunications provider in a heartbeat.

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About Ninja Hedgehog

I’m Ninja Hedgehog, the creator of the Ninja Hedgehog website. I've written various things over the years but started Ninja Hedgehog in October 2011. I write about all kind of subjects but will never write about sport. Ever.